President Calviño at the 7th Annual Capital Markets Seminar

Well, thank you very much for that kind introduction and thank you very much for hosting us, Madame Thomas, dear Françoise.  

It is great to have this wonderful, wonderful site and to have this consolidated yearly event that brings together so many important members of the investment and finance community here in Luxembourg and from also some other parts of Europe.  

So, I'm really very glad to be here today. It is a very timely event. It is a very timely discussion. Only today we know European leaders were gathering in Copenhagen for this informal European Council meeting. And the message that comes out from this meeting is quite clear in terms of determination to defend Europe's values. As you said, they are worth double. Our values are twice as important at this point in time. And I think the message is also one of consolidation and reinforcement of the role of Europe as a beacon of stability, trust, confidence, as well as the defence of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. And we all know how important it is for the well-function of the financial sector.  

And of course, you will not be surprised to hear me say the European Investment Bank has a key role to play in all of this. We are in a quite unique position right now in the current geopolitical context. With a balance sheet of near 600 billion euros, a stellar AAA rating, we are probably the largest multilateral financial institution in the world. We are pan-European by design, with projects and presence in each and every one of our member states and also around the world. Our shareholders are the 27 member states, neither more nor less. This is extremely relevant in today's world. And we are the main implementing partner of the European budget and mandates, both inside and outside the Union. This happened before I joined the European Investment Bank, so no conflict of interest whatsoever in being the main implementing partner of the European Commission, which actually allows us to leverage every euro in guarantees from the European budget to mobilise 15 euros in investment, bringing together the private investors, and having, I think, a very important impact on the world. Not only an important impact in terms of the numbers mobilised, but also what we use the money for. Yesterday I was doing the interview with the CNBC and talking about the recent signature of a 300 million loan to Ukraine to replenish their gas storages in the run-up to the winter. This is what we are talking about, you know, real impact on the ground.  

So, in other words, I think the broad theme of today's seminar “Investing in our values” is exactly what the European Investment Bank does. And this is clear when we identify our priorities. As Shirin already mentioned, we have eight key priorities, unanimously endorsed by our shareholders. Let me just refer to the three first ones. Because our top priority is to consolidate our role as the climate bank.  

On Monday, our board agreed and endorsed the second phase of our climate bank roadmap in the run-up to 2030. Building on the success of the first phase, what we want is to focus our finance on projects that contribute to Europe's competitiveness, security, technological leadership, bringing down energy prices to the benefit of families and companies. We want to also double our finance for adaptation to climate change. We see that the cost and impact of extreme weather events and disasters is rising. Europe is at the forefront of this impact, and we need to make sure that we invest in resilience and adaptation. Because again, every euro we invest in prevention and adaptation saves five to seven euros in repair of damages, reconstruction, losses. Not to speak, of course, about those losses that are irrecoverable, like lives. So, it's not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do that we invest in prevention and adaptation.  

And thirdly, and I know this audience is going to like it a lot, radical simplification. I am talking about no gold-plating. I am talking about self-assessment and reliance on green checkers, reliance on reporting obligations and the regulatory framework with no added requirements when we are talking about green investments.  

So, this, I think, is the right roadmap for us to make competitiveness and climate a winning tandem for Europe. We have now a clear roadmap to support one trillion euros in green investment in the decade to 2030. Thus consolidating, as I was saying, the role of the European Investment Bank as the climate bank, but also the leadership of Europe in this area, which is future-oriented.  

My colleagues would not forgive me if I didn't mention that this pioneering role of the European Investment Bank is not only on this asset side, because we have also pioneered the green bond market. Not only my colleagues, also, of course, the head of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Julie Becker, who is here today, and our key partner, actually, in building up this green bond market. We are one of the largest players in this area, with more than 125 billion euros in climate and sustainability bonds issued so far. And maybe the headline I want to leave with you today is that we see strong demand for these green bonds. I think markets actually see these as good investments. They see that these will bring returns. They trust also the issuers. Our latest green bond issuance reached our two largest order books, even. Subscribed, oversubscribed more than ten times. And that shows that markets support this policy, just like markets support Europe.  

I am so proud to be participating in this event co-sponsored with the European Commission and the European Stability Mechanism, because these three institutions together have issued more than one trillion euros in safe assets, while also contributing to Europe's policy priorities and the international role of the euro. I think the message yesterday from Commissioner Serafin is important. We are here to stay. So, the European Commission will continue to be an important player. And I can also tell you from the European Investment Bank's perspective, we have almost completed our issuance program for 2025. So those of you that are interested, stay alert for January.  

Now, beyond green finance, our second top priority is supporting Europe's technological leadership, innovation. And there is, as you were saying, unanimity in identifying the challenges. And identifying the finance gap for successful, innovative companies to scale up in Europe as one of the key challenges. And I know many people in this room are working on the Savings and Investment Union and the Capital Markets Union and these initiatives that have been going on for a long while. From the European Investment Bank, we are completing and contributing bottom-up to this endeavour, with the goal of mobilizing 250 billion euros by 2027. In these areas, which have to do from artificial intelligence to quantum computing, digital infrastructures, health and biotech, clean tech, security and defence, skills and talent, critical raw materials, all those elements that are indispensable for Europe to keep this technological leadership. So, we want to support European ideas, technologies, companies, so that they can thrive also in Europe. So that Europe moves from being the incubator of the world, to the scale-up success in the world. TechEU will be bigger, faster, simpler than any other previous programs. We aim to have a six-month average time-to-market for venture debt and venture capital, so that we can really respond agilely to the needs of companies.  

And we are walking the talk every day as we speak. You know, just last week we have decided to place a very significant investment in the first of its kind venture capital fund, investing in companies advancing breakthrough treatments for central nervous diseases like Parkinson, like dementia. I wanted to mention this because I think we should all understand how important it is that Europe retains the technological leadership in all these areas.  

And the call for joining forces and pooling resources is more pertinent than ever, as we are preparing the launch of the second phase, the second European Tech Champions Initiative Fund. We had a very important success. In only two years, mobilizing more than 3 billion euros in support for the scale-up of Europe's successful startups. And we are right now preparing the second phase, so just again, heads up, you know, keep tuned, stay tuned to see what's coming up on this front.  

Third priority I wanted to mention here today, and unfortunately the one that is most topical as we speak: security and defence. Because in response to the radically shifting international landscape, the European Investment Bank Group has stepped up its financing in this area. We have simplified processes, we have accelerated our support, so that we can really make a difference in reinforcing Europe's security and defence capabilities.  

We are on track in 2025 to more than triple our support in this area, so that it reaches 3.5% of our total finance. That's 3.5 billion euros this year. We have a pipeline, a robust pipeline, of more than 30 flagship operations currently under approval. We have set up a one-stop-shop service for clients and investors, and we have, as I said, reached cruising speed, so that the last signatures that we have concluded have been achieved around six months after the presentation of the projects for the first time.  

And we're talking about complex projects, whether it is research programs, whether it is a military campus in Lithuania, quite complex initiatives that have been assessed in record time by the European Investment Bank teams. Our approach is designed to maximize the mobilization of private capital through commercial banks, venture capital funds, public-private partnerships in this area.  

And I would like to take this opportunity to call for all of us to join our forces. There are five key areas where the European Investment Bank is already providing large-scale finance. First, to reinforce Europe's critical infrastructures. This is military mobility, this is ports, this is airports, other critical border protection, of course, critical infrastructures.  

Secondly, we're strengthening the industrial capabilities of Europe's defence industry. I think we're all aware of how important it is to master this transition away from our dependence on international partners. We have approved, for example, operations in the area of optical ground stations, satellite launch equipment, drone manufacturing.  

Third area is supporting homegrown research and development in new technologies. We have already signed important large-scale deals with two major players, Thales and Indra, in Europe. More will follow in this area. This has to do with... from communications to software security, biodefense, advanced digitalization.  

Fourth area is financing for SMEs in the supply chain of large European contractors. We have already announced financing agreements with Deutsche Bank and the Banque Populaire Caisse d'Epargne to provide finance across Europe, not only in their home countries. And more will follow, I'm sure, to mobilize finance for SMEs.  

And finally, we're also boosting the emerging ecosystem of dedicated private investment funds in this area. And at every one of our Boards meetings, the European Investment Fund is adopting important investments into this ecosystem. 

So, all this shows we're moving fast. We are putting together our pace, investment policies and ambition up to the standard of the seismic shifts that we are seeing in the global geopolitical landscape. And we see that the private sector is also moving, so we are joining our forces so that we can seek value from investing into joint proposals. And let me say, our teams at the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund are always available and obviously in the room to discuss any initiatives in this regard.  

Let me conclude these introductory remarks with some more general reflections. Because the world we live in today, and you said it, it seems to be filled with challenges. Sometimes it's difficult to watch the news because the news are overwhelming, aren't they? But when we look back, we realize this happened before. Wars, conflicts, this was the normal situation in our countries until the end of World War II and the creation of the European Union. Actually, not so long ago, many in the room, will remember when our economy was really challenged by the great financial crisis. Every week we read the editorials in very relevant newspapers saying that it would be the end of the Euro by the end of the week. Don't we remember that?  

Even more recently, we saw the challenges of fighting the pandemic. I remember very well, and we worked together so well with the member states, the European Commission, the European Stability Mechanism and the European Central Bank to save the European economy. And we were successful. Not only that, together with the private sector we developed the vaccine, so that by the end of 2020 we were already starting to vaccinate all citizens in Europe independently from their country of origin, independently from their nationality. I think this is such a remarkable achievement that we have witnessed ourselves here in Europe.  

So, many have said this is the end of the EU, this is the end of the European project, this is the end of the Euro. But well, here we are alive and kicking. So the lesson that I have learned from these experiences and being actually in the front line of these experiences – whether it was the great financial crisis and many colleagues here I worked with at that point in time of course more recently fighting and trying to respond to the pandemic. There are two main lessons: the first one is that when we are together, we are unstoppable, and the second one is that when we reach a juncture that looks like the end of the road it is actually the beginning for something new. And we are at that juncture today. We have to change our ways, we have to adapt, we have to research. That's for sure. But the European Union has overcome every crisis and remains the best place to live because every time we have been able to identify and seize the opportunities and adapt to change. So, this history, the history of our unity and our resilience, gives me confidence for the future.  

And I would like to close with this with a call for unity, a call for trust in our own capacities, a call for determination in addressing these challenges – as I was telling some colleagues around the room before I came up to the podium – less action plans, more action. Let me leave you with this idea. Thank you very much.